Improving Employee Performance With Data Analysis

A new study of 121 million anonymous performance and behavioral records from Evolv, a company that provides workforce management information to companies through the use of big data, appears to prove one important fact: The more you understand about your employees, the more you can understand their job performance. More importantly, the study indicates that through the use of data analysis, companies can expect to glean real insight into their employees and dramatically expand their chances of increasing productivity in the workplace. "The current applicant selection and performance management process is entirely subjective and doesn't accurately predict employee outcomes. It's often counterproductive to workplace success," says Max Simkoff, co-founder and CEO of Evolv. "Dynamic analytics software reveals the hard facts on what makes employees most successful, allowing executives to make smart operational decisions." For years, CIOs have been charged with leveraging the right products to increase employee productivity. Unfortunately, much of that work revolved around guessing what employees wanted and what they didn't. With help from big data, it appears that far more insight can be gleaned from employees’ behavior and, in turn, improve their job performance.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology columnist. He started writing about technology for Ziff-Davis' Gearlog.com. Since then, he has written extremely popular columns for CNET.com, Computerworld, InformationWeek, and others. He has appeared numerous times on national television to share his expertise with viewers. You can follow his every move at http://twitter.com/donreisinger.